Skylanders Short Stories: Sunburn and Stealth Elf
by mpuppy4
Summary: (PREQUEL) Sunburn is fun-loving and arrogant. Stealth Elf is serious and uptight. When these polar opposites are paired up for what could quite possibly be the most important mission in Skylanders history, what will happen? Will Sunburn drive Stealth to the brink of insanity? Or... will this adventure lead to something more? Rated T for mild language and violence. Five-Shot.
1. Chapter 1

**_((HEYO! _**Hey, remember when I said that _Blank Out! _is my favorite Skylanders Short Story? Yeah, it's not anymore. Why? Because this is! Those of you who have read my profile know exactly why.))

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><p><span><strong>Chapter One<strong>

"Stealth Elf? Hey, Stealth Elf!"

Whirlwind was bounding about the yards outside Master Eon's citadel. Judging by her calls, she was looking for Stealth Elf, the newest recruit to the Skylanders. She had only been on one mission thus far, and it was alongside Whirlwind. The unicorn hybrid was the only friend she had made. At least, the only one she knew about. Whirl turned her head in several different directions. "Not in the building, not in the courtyard, not on the beach... Where are you, Stealth Elf?"

She caught the eye of Trigger Happy, one of the original three Skylanders, who dashed over to her and said, "Hey, Whirlie! What's up?"

Whirl sighed. "Nothing, really. Just trying to find Stealth Elf."

Trigg blinked. "Who's Stealth Elf?"

The girl shook her head. "The new girl. I went on a mission with her the other day!" Trigger Happy still didn't know who she was talking about. "The forest elf girl with the mask."

"Oh, _that _Stealth Elf!" Trigg exclaimed. "Couldn't remember her name."

Whirlwind shook her head. "Yeah, you never remember the girls' names. I know you couldn't remember mine when I first joined."

Trigg laughed. "He he! I'm just bad with names, don't think I have anything against girls!"

"You better not." Whirl glared at him playfully. "I'll talk to you later, Trigg."

"Hasta la bye-bye, Whirlie!"

Whirlwind left him and approached the grove of trees not far from the Core of Light. "If I was raised by an Ent in Treetop Terrace," she said to herself. "this is where I would be." She narrowed her eyes to get a better look at the woods. "Let's see here..." She nearly missed it, but a shadow swooped between the treetops, barely making a sound. "Ah ha! There you are!"

Stealth Elf was indeed the shadow in the trees, leaping from branch to branch. Eventually she stopped and took a good look at the ground below. Seeing that there was nobody down there, she jumped off and sat down at the base of the tree. It was bright and early in the morning, but she was sort of nocturnal. You could tell from her droopy eyes that she had been awake all night, and probably figured that she could finally sleep. Oh, how wrong she was.

"Hey, Stealth Elf!" Whirlwind hopped out of the brush without warning, startling Stealth and causing her to fall over. "Oops, sorry. I figured you would have heard me coming."

Stealth sat back up and rubbed her head. "So did I..." she grumbled. "How did you do that?"

Whirl shrugged. "Uh, don't know! I know you have strong senses, I really did think you would have heard or smelled me."

"I do not think I would have been able to smell you with my nose covered by this mask."

"You know what I mean," Whirl said. "By the way, why don't you use contractions?"

Stealth looked at her blankly. "What is a 'contraction?'"

Whirl blinked. "Oh boy. I'll explain that some other time, if somebody else doesn't get to it first."

After deciding that wondering about what Whirlwind had said was hurting her brain, Stealth Elf settled back down and closed her eyes. "Why are you here, Whirlwind?'

Whirl tilted her head. "What do you mean, 'why am I here?' Is there something wrong with just wanting to talk to you?"

Stealth opened her eyes. "Nobody has ever wanted to talk to me before... nobody with good intentions."

"Really?" Whirl questioned. "Nobody at all?"

Stealth paused. "Well... my Master..." She sniffled.

Whirl set a paw on her friend's back. "Let's not talk about that, sweetie. Too soon."

Stealth nodded, rubbing her eyes. "Too soon..." she parroted. "You know... I don't think I've ever met anybody else my age..."

Whirl smiled faintly. "Actually, I'm a little older than you. Supposedly, since you don't know your own birth date." Stealth's ears drooped. "Er, let's stop talking about the depressing stuff!"

"There is a lot of depressing stuff."

"I know, sweetie."

Stealth tried to think of something that wouldn't work herself up. It took a while, but eventually she said, "I think you are the first girl I have ever met."

Whirl couldn't help but laugh. "Wait, really? I know you grew up in a forest, but you were really the only girl there?" Stealth nodded again. "Dang." She wrapped her tail around Stealth's waist affectionately. "Well, now you know another girl who you can talk to about girl things."

Before Stealth had the chance to ask what she meant by "girl things," they got a surprise visit. **"Heyo!" **...from Trigger Happy, who appeared in a tree branch, hanging by his legs. Stealth yelped and fell over into Whirlwind.

"Oof. ...until he shows up." Whirl pushed Stealth Elf off of her. "Trigg, did you follow me?"

"Maybe." He fell out of the tree and on his head, then stood back up completely unfazed. "Hey there, uh... elf girl."

"'Stealth Elf,'" Whirl reminded him.

"Yeah, I'm sticking with 'elf girl.' Hey, it's a nice bright morning! Who wants bacon and eggs?"

"I am a vegetarian," Stealth declared.

"Thanks anyway, Trigg," Whirlwind said.

Trigger Happy shrugged. "Hey, I can make a vegetarian breakfast! Anybody up for toast?"

Stealth turned back to Whirlwind. "What is 'toast?'"

Whirl facepalmed. "Poor, ignorant, grew-up-isolated-from-technology Stealth Elf..."

"What is 'isolated?'"

Trigg frowned. "And, apparently, three syllable words."

Stealth's ears drooped again. "What is a 'syllable?'"

"We need to get you into a school," Whirlwind laughed. "but not right now. It's not that important."

"Hm..."

Trigg scratched his head. "I'm pretty sure there was something I'm supposed to tell you... oh yeah! Master Eon is lookin' for ya, elf girl!"

"Eon?" Stealth asked.

Trigg nodded. "He should be just outside the citadel. I bet he's gonna give you your first assignment!"

"Yeah, technically we weren't 'assigned' that one mission the other day," Whirlwind noted. "Won't that be fun?"

Stealth shrugged. "Mm. Maybe."

Whirl and Trigg pulled her to her feet and pushed her towards the citadel. "Okay, go get a mission!" Trigg encouraged. "Go go go!"

"We'll be right here when you get back!" Whirl told her.

Stealth sighed. "What does this place have against sleep...?" She walked grumpily in the direction that they had pointed her. A few of the Skylanders waved to her and said hello, except for Chop Chop, who glared at her angrily (she did the same).

"Ah, Stealth Elf!" Master Eon greeted her when she arrived. "How are you doing this fine morning?"

"I'm tired," Stealth growled. "Trigger Happy said that you wanted to see me."

"Ah, yes." Eon nodded. "You see, I have decided to give you your first assignment."

Her eyes widened. "Really?" she asked. _I thought they were kidding around. _"Um... what is it?"

Eon knelt down. Forest elves are... short. "Well, it's a very important mission, and since you've only been a Skylander for several days, I'm going to assign you a partner."

Stealth narrowed her eyes. "It is not the skeleton with the sword, is it?"

Eon chuckled. "No, it isn't Chop Chop. It's... oh, here he comes now!"

"He-e-e-ey, Stealth Elf!"

Stealth cringed. "H-He is almost as bad as the skeleton with the sword!"

Her partner was Sunburn.

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><p>On the far side of Skylands, a flying palace strolled through the air. But this wasn't just any flying palace, no... this flying palace belonged to the most evil dictator in the world: Kaos.<p>

"I just can't stand this anymore, Glumshanks!" Kaos roared. Like usual, he was complaining to his butler about how many times he gets defeated. "That miserable _Loser Eon _has been stopping evildoers for centuries! Ceturies, Glumshanks! Even I- **Kaos! **-can't bring an end to this madness!" He turned to face the troll, who was drinking a cup of tea and sitting in an armchair. "Allow me to ask you, why is it that Eon always completely and utterly humiliates your magnificent leader?"

Glumshanks set down his cup on the plate he was holding. "I think you do it to yourself..." he muttered.

Kaos frowned. "Wrong answer," he growled. "I'll tell you why. It's because of those stupid Skylanders! They're the ones that Eon sends to do his dirty work." He smirked. "But, what would happen if he didn't have those Skylanders to do things for him?"

Glumshanks shrugged. "I don't know. Probably not bother us. Er, you."

"No!' the Dark Portal Master snapped. "Well, maybe. But more importantly, he wouldn't be able to stand in my way! There would be nobody left to stop me from taking over Skylands! So, I've devised a plan so fiendishly perfect... that I didn't consult anybody before starting it."

The butler shook his head. "I see. This outta be good." He set his cup down on a coffee table and stood up. "Alright sir, what is this brilliant, fool-proof plan of yours?"

Kaos smiled a toothy, evil smile. "Kidnap the Skylanders."

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><p>((For those of you who didn't already figure this out, this story is a prequel to the first four stories. I knew from the beginning that I wanted this story to be a thing, but since I started in SWAP Force, this had to be a prequel. Actually, that's kinda good! This story is going to answer some questions that the other stories introduced. Actually, this chapter already has.))<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

((Eh. I forgot what I was gonna say.))

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><p><span><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Glumshanks was surprised, to say the least. It wasn't very often that Kaos had a decent plan (decent meaning anything that wouldn't end in him exploding) but this seemed a little more like it could actually work than normal. "Really?" he asked. "Kidnap all of the Skylanders! How are you going to do that?"

Kaos chuckled. "Please, Glumshanks! I already have."

The troll's eyes widened as his master walked towards the set of stairs that lead to the dungeon. "W-Wait, seriously?" He followed Kaos down the stairs. "You've already caught _all _of the Skylanders?"

"Well, not all of them," Kaos responded. "A few of them! But the rest will come soon." He approached an electric gate and punched a code into a padlock. Inside the gate were thirty-two capsules built into the wall, color coded to represent that there were four per element. The names of each Skylander were written above the capsules. "I did some research, and built these capsules specifically to contain each individual Skylander."

Glumshanks examined the wall. Several of the Skylanders had already been miraculous caught- Prism Break, Wham-Shell, Ghost Roaster, and Sonic Boom. They were laying around and looking extremely bored, exceept for Ghost Roaster, who was etching his recipes into the wall with his finger. "Wow!" Glumshanks exclaimed. "I'm surprised you caught even one of them."

"So are we," Wham-Shell growled.

**"Hey!" **Kaos snapped. "No speaking unless spoken to!" Wham-Shell rolled his eyes and mimicked Kaos' mouth movements with his hand. Kaos stuck his tongue out.

"So they really can't escape?" Glumshanks asked.

Kaos shook his head. "Nope! Here, observe." He pulled a rock out of his cloak and chucked it at Ghost Roaster's capsules. **"Hey, ugly!" **Roaster growled and turned around to face them. **"You wanna piece of me?! Come on!" **Roaster shook his head and turned back to the wall.

Glumshanks stroked his chin. "Try insulting his cooking," he whispered.

Kaos nodded. **"Hey! I've tried your casserole! It tastes like play-dough!"**

Roaster's finger twitched. Fuming, he whirled around and transformed into his ectoplasm mode. But he couldn't pass through the glass. Wham-Shell facepalmed, Prism Break stared at the ground, and I think Sonic Boom was asleep. "Very impressive!" Glumshanks praised his master. "All of these are built specifically to be immune to their powers?"

"Exactly." Kaos nodded. "I think I built an extra capsule in the Life element, though."

"Actually, I believe they just recruited a new Life element a couple days ago."

"Eh?" Kaos questioned. "Is it dangerous? Does it have powers? Should I rebuild the capsule?"

Glumshanks shook his head. "I'm pretty sure it just carries weapons."

"You mean Stealth Elf," Prism Break said. "Yeah. Take away her daggers and she's harmless."

**"Prism Break!" **the Skylanders exclaimed.

He shrugged. "What? He would have figured it out anyway."

"Right you are, foolish prisoner," Kaos cackled. "Alright Glumshanks, if any of the Skylanders stray even two feet away from Eon's island, I want to know. It's too risky to send troops there to nab them all at once. Oh, and Glumshanks?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Get me a cappuccino!"

Glumshanks frowned. "But sir, we don't have any coffee-"

**"I don't care! Get some!"**

Wham-Shell watched the butler scurry out of the room. "Heh, glad we don't work for him."

**"No speaking unless spoken to!"**

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><p>Sunburn flashed a smile. "Hey, haven't seen you in a couple days," he said. "What have you been up to, Stealth Elf?"<p>

Stealth glared at him. "Why do you care?" She hit herself on the forehead when the phoenix shrugged arrogantly. "Why is it him?" she asked Master Eon. "Can it be anybody else?" She sighed. "Why do I even need a partner for this mission."

"Well, like I said," Eon replied. "this is your first assignment, and it's very important."

Sunburn cocked his head. "Yeah, about that. Could you tell us what it is?"

Eon nodded. "Of course, Sunburn. Now you may have noticed, but a few of the Skylanders have gone missing on their most recent mission."

Stealth raised an eyebrow, but Sunburn immediately spat, "Kaos."

"That would be my assumption," Eon responded. "So, I want the two of you to investigate. Together." He beamed down at Stealth Elf. "Now I understand that you have trouble trusting the others, but you need to learn to make friends. You must know why I did this, child."

Stealth crossed her arms. "I guess..."

"C'mon, Stealth Elf!" Sunburn wrapped an arm around his new partner. "We're gonna have a grand ol' time! Just you and me!"

Stealth's eye twitched and she punched him in the face. "Do. Not. Touch me."

Eon smiled weakly. "Yes, you should keep an eye on her, Sunburn."

"Yeah, without dying..." he grumbled. He got back on his feet and shook the dirt out of his feathers. "This might have a rocky start, but I'm pretty sure it will end well. You can count on me, Master Eon."

"Very good. I expect to see both of you in one piece when you return."

Sunburn blinked. "Uh-huh. Not making any promises." Eon chuckled at this, even though it was very likely that Sunburn wasn't joking. "Come on, Stealth! Let's go grab a ship from Flynn."

Stealth followed him reluctantly. Then she realized something. "Um, who is Flynn?"

"Ha! Damn, you really haven't met Flynn yet?" Stealth shook her head. "Well, you're about to. He's our pilot. Takes us on most of our missions. Personality-wise, he's like me, but about a trillion times more cocky."

"Great." Stealth would have rolled her eyes if she was capable of doing so. "Do any of the boys here take their job seriously?"

Sunburn laughed. "I'll tell you what, Chop Chop takes things a little _too _seriously. Since you tried to assassinate Master Eon, the guy's convinced that you're a Drow." They both went silent. Sunburn noticed what he had said wrong and quickly stated. "Oh c'mon, you're not still upset about that, are you? You were forced to do it. That Splinter guy would have burned down the entirety of Treetop Terrace if you didn't. Besides, he's dead now!"

"Mm..."

"Hey, I get it. You're having a tough week! All Skylanders have their tough week. But... well, if we didn't have our tough weeks, we wouldn't all be friends!"

Stealth Elf was silent.

Sunburn chuckled. "Oh please, I know you at _least _like Whirlwind. Don't try to deny it."

"Hey, Sunburn!" That call came from Flynn, who had been reading a magazine called "All about you." "What brings you here? Come to see ol' Captain Flynn at his best?"

Sunburn looked at the ground and shook his head, trying not to laugh. "Uh, no," he replied. "Actually, we need a ship for our mission."

Flynn noticed Stealth Elf, standing impatiently behind Sunburn. "Oh, hey! You must be Stealth Elf!" He extended his hand. "Put 'er there!"

Stealth stared at his hand in confusion. This time Sunburn did laugh. "I don't think she knows what you want her to do."

The Mabu withdrew his hand. "Alrighty then. What's up with her?"

"Tough week," Sunburn replied.

"Ah, still that, huh?"

"Yeah, they usually last... a week! And it's only Friday."

"Mm-hm. Well, I wouldn't know what that's like." He flexed his arm. "Captain Flynn doesn't have tough weeks. Heh, I've never even had a bad hair day!" Stealth shook her head. "So, has she met any of the others yet?"

"Just me, Whirlwind, Trigger Happy..." Sunburn was straining his brain trying to remember. "I think Camo, and Master Eon... and Chop Chop."

"Ha! Wasn't he booing at her initiation?"

"Yep, that was him alright."

Flynn chuckled. "That guy needs to lighten up, seriously. I'll get you two a ship."

Sunburn watched him leave, then turned back to Stealth Elf. "You're quiet."

"There is no reason to speak," she said.

The hybrid shook his head. "Oh, you have some stuff to learn, don't you? If you don't talk to people they're gonna think you're a total bummer."

"I do not understand."

Sunburn crossed his eyes as he tried to wrap his head around this situation. "Okay. If you talk to people, they'll like you. If you don't talk to people, they'll act like Chop Chop. Got it?"

Stealth nodded. "I guess..."

"Okay, got yer ship, Sunburn!" Flynn called.

"We'll be right there! Come on, Stealth. I'm gonna teach you how to fly!"

"Great..."

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><p>((This Skylanders Short Stories is brought to you by "These Daggers Against My Finger Tips" by Paranoixa.<p>

Nah, not really. But seriously, that is one amazing story. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's about Stealth Elf's origin story. At least, the first chapter is. It's a totally amazing story that deserves a read. If you like Stealth Elf, you should really take a look. I'm sure the author would appreciate it if you left a nice review. I did!))


	3. Chapter 3

((Oh god, sorry for the two month hiatus. The thing is that sometimes I write my stories in my notebook before I type them up on the computer, which means that I have to transcribe it. Because I don't know how to type properly, this takes _forever. _Because it takes forever, I don't have much motivation to do it. But here- have a long chapter to make up for the wait!))

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><p><span><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

"So many Skylanders, so little time..." Kaos was observing a pair of cyclops forcing Boomer into one of the cells. It took a while, but eventually they got him in there. The other Skylanders groaned upon seeing another one of their friends caught. It had been only a few hours since Kaos had introduced his newest plot to Glumshanks, but his minions had captured several Skylanders since. "Oh, this is too good. I'm making progress so quickly!"

One of the cyclops handed the bag that they had confiscated from Boomer to the Dark Portal Master. "This is everything it was carrying," it told him.

Kaos peered into the bag. "That's a lot of dynamite." He shoved it back into the cyclops' hands. "Take it to the explosives vault."

"Yessir."

When the two cyclops had left, Kaos looked up at his wall of prisoners triumphantly. "Let's see here... thirty-two minus thirteen equals nineteen." He smirked. "It won't be long now."

"What do you plan on doing to us?" Bash growled.

"Leaving you in there to rot, what else?" Kaos replied. "Unless I can master mind control, it's not safe to have you Skylosers anywhere else."

Zap whimpered. "Are you at least going to feed us?"

Kaos cackled. "Ha! Of course not!"

"Lord Kaos!" Glumshanks called through the enraged complaints. "The radar picked up that more of the Skylanders have left Eon's Citadel."

Kaos nodded. "Tell me."

"Well, three of them left for Leviathan Lagoon..."

"Send the Pirate Greebles."

"...one of them is in the underworld..."

"Some Arkeyans will make quick work of them."

"...and two of them left in a small airship."

"Have the Troll fleet deal with them."

Glumshanks bowed. "Yes, Lord Kaos. I'll get right on it."

The troll went out to follow through with his master's demands. Kaos glanced back up at the wall. "You hear that? More of your little friends are coming to join you!" He started counting on his fingers when his captives broke into a riot. "Nineteen minus six equals thirteen. They make it too easy."

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><p>The airship that Flynn left to Sunburn was absolutely tiny, but considering that it was just him and Stealth Elf, it was just the right size. While Sunburn steered the ship, Stealth was sitting in the corner, fiddling with a piece of wood. It looked like she was trying to carve it into the shape of a Stump Dog, but she was so terrible at it that you could barely tell. They were flying approaching two large islands, heading in the direction of Kaos' fortress. Sunburn had tried making conversation several times, but Stealth only replied with muffled grunts, so he gave up.<p>

For a while, the only sound was the airship's propellers. Then Sunburn decided to ask, "What was it like?"

Stealth paused and glanced up at him. "What?"

"In Treetop Terrace," Sunburn replied. "What was it like in Treetop Terrace?"

Stealth was surprised that Sunburn had said something that wasn't about himself, or how he thought that her hair looked nice. "Well," she said. "There are a lot of trees there. Most of them are really big, but some of them are smaller. But it is not just trees there. There are a lot of other plants, too." For some reason, it seemed like Sunburn was genuinely listening to her. "Most of the ground there is covered in grass, but some of it is bare dirt. I like the grass... more than the grass at your, um, what is it called?"

"The Citadel."

"Yes, that. The grass there is not as nice. I do not know why exactly... hm. Uh, there are also watering holes, mostly small, but there is one larger by the Tree of Life."

"Ah, the Tree of Life." Sunburn smiled. "Camo won't shut up about that. What's it like?"

"The Tree of Life is the center of all life in Treetop Terrace," Stealth replied.

"That's kind of obvious."

She shot a glare back at him. "Quiet," she snapped. "Without the Tree of Life, nothing could exist in the forest."

"Then it wouldn't be a forest anymore."

"Yes, you could put it that way. The entire ecosystem is part of the Tree of Life. It is all connected. The whole forest... it is really one big tree. And all of the animals live in the tree, and the watering holes were created by the tree. Of course, nobody in the aboveworld cares about any of that..."

"What is the 'aboveworld?'"

"That is above the trees, were Camo is from. I have only been there a few times. My... er, my Master did not want me there."

"Why?"

"Ah, he said that it is dangerous. H-He did not want me to be hurt..." She stopped after that. Like Whirlwind said, it was too soon. Her late Master was a very sensitive subject.

Sunburn understood. He had witnessed first hand when Stealth Elf poured all of her sorrows out to Eon just after it happened. But also, just like her, he had lost someone very close to him.

"Sorry about that," he apologized. "So, how long did you live there?"

Stealth rubbed her eyes. "I... I think seven years."

"And you're eleven?"

"Yes, I think so."

Sunburn paused to do the math. "So you've been there since you were four?"

Stealth tilted her head. She didn't understand where he had gotten that number, but she said yes anyway.

Sunburn was going to respond, until he noticed that an entire fleet of Troll airships was flying towards them. "Uh-oh."

"'Uh-oh?'" Stealth sprung up and rushed to see what he was looking at. "What 'uh-oh?'"

"Looks like Kaos found us," Sunburn growled. "Luckily for us, I spotted them before they got too close. Do you know how to drive and/or fire a cannon?"

Stealth narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'll take that as a 'no.' Okay, what to do..." The fleets were getting closer every moment that he didn't take action. "If we try to retreat, they could catch us. If I have her steer while I fire, she could crash us... crash... the ship... crash the ship! Of course!" He nodded. "Okay, I'm going to crash the ship."

"Eeeeeeh?" Stealth blinked. "Uh, I do not know much about airships, but is it not bad to crash them?"

"No, I'm going to crash it into that left island so they'll follow it. We're going to escape to the right island. They won't suspect a thing."

Stealth twiddled her thumbs. "If you say so..." she said quietly. "B-But, how are we going to get to the island?" The ships were getting closer.

"I'm gonna carry you there," Sunburn replied.

"You can really fly?"

"Of course I can fly! Now I'm going to wait until they start firing at us." He turned their ship to the left. "They'll think they shot our propellers."

"When will they start firing?"

Suddenly they were being shot at.

Sunburn blinked. "I'd say right about now!" He sent the ship plummeting towards the left island. "Alright, let's go! And remember, we have to be discreet!"

"What is 'discreet?'"

_(She's a ninja who doesn't know what discreet means. Great.) _"I'll explain later!" Sunburn flapped his wings and grabbed Stealth, then soared off of the ship. Just as he had planned, the Trolls were too busy chasing the abandoned vessel to notice that they had fled. "Heh. Trolls are stupid."

Stealth looked down at the endless void of sky below them. She had been trying not to, but couldn't help it. Upon seeing that there was virtually nothing below them, she yelped and latched onto Sunburn's leg. "Oof! Okay, please don't do that." Sunburn looked down at her. She was petrified. "Um, are you okay?"

"I m-may be just a l-little afraid of h-heights..." Stealth stammered.

Sunburn sighed. "Well, that's just great. Don't worry, we're almost there. Hold on!"

He swooped down, making sure that Stealth wasn't going anywhere. He dodged a couple of trees- it seemed to be a forest -and came to a halt. He hovered above the ground, but Stealth didn't seem to have realized where they were. Her eyes were shut tight. "Hey." Sunburn poked her. "You can let go now."

"Huh?" Stealth opened her eyes to find that there was ground below her. "Oh." She hopped down and Sunburn landed next to her. He noticed that she was a bit red in her face.

He laughed. "Hey, it's okay to be afraid of heights," Sunburn told Stealth. "Lots of people are!"

Stealth's ears drooped. "Really?" she asked.

Sunburn nodded and set a talon on her shoulder. "Really." Much to his surprise, he was touching her, and she wasn't punching him. She didn't even snap at him. It seemed that he had either broken or fixed her, though he wasn't sure which one.

After Sunburn removed his hand, Stealth observed, "This island is a forest."

"Yeah, it is." Sunburn was still bewildered by his partner's sudden change of attitude. He glanced up to find that the sky was becoming a wondrous shade of orange. "It's getting late. Let's find a place to rest and keep moving in the morning."

Stealth nodded. "I am tired." She stretched her left arm. "I can find a place to stay."

"Alright! Lead the way, forest girl."

Stealth scowled. "Do not call me that."

Sunburn shrugged. "Okay, I'll call you 'elf girl.'"

"That one is worse..." Sunburn was extremely annoying. But- stealth couldn't believe she was thinking this- he was also rather charming. Well, he had his moments. He was certainly nicer than Stealth had expected. Maybe... Maybe she liked him after all.

Apparently Stealth Elf is an expert on finding hollowed trees, because it took only a few minutes for her to find one. Sunburn was pleased to find that there was no grass growing inside. Stealth watched with a puzzled expression as he gathered a bunch of rocks and twigs and arranged them in an orderly pile. Then he breathed fire on them.

Stealth jumped. "Y-Y-You can shoot f-fire out of your b-beak?"

"Well, yeah," Sunburn replied. "I'm half phoenix half dragon. Of course I can breath fire!"

Good thing, too. They could have been there for forever and a day trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together. Stealth Elf warmed her hands over the fire while Sunburn arranged two nests for them to sleep in. "The longest mission I've ever been on lasted for five days," Sunburn said when he joined Stealth. "It was me, Chop Chop, and Wham-Shell. We had to chase some bastard into the Underworld, but he trapped us in this huge maze that took four days for us to escape from. When we finally got out, we spent the entire fifth day tracking the guy down... But that's just the longest mission that _I've _been on. Spyro and Gill Grunt were gone for two weeks one time."

"Wow. How long do you think this mission will take?" Stealth inquired.

"If we're lucky, we'll be done tomorrow." Sunburn replied. "But we could be stuck here a while. It's better than being captured of dead, at least. I'll check to see if there's anybody else on this island tomorrow. If not, I'll fly out to get help. I'm sure you'll be fine here on your own."

Stealth nodded. "I will. Do not worry about me. I am very good at hiding."

"Whirlwind told me you can turn invisible."

"I can."

Sunburn smiled. "Okay, that's the coolest thing I've heard all day. Can you do it right now?"

"I can," Stealth replied. "but I am not going to."

Sunburn laughed. He was quite pleased with himself for developing Stealth's character this much in one day. He wasn't sure if she thought of him as a friend just yet, but he was determined that she would soon. After all, he liked her.

"Um..." Stealth muttered. "So, uh... where are you from?"

Sunburn cocked his head. "Really? You want to know?"

Stealth nodded. "I told you about me. And, I know you like to talk about yourself. So... go ahead! Tell me your life's story."

Sunburn smiled. "Well, I came from a place called 'Dragon's Peak...'"

* * *

><p>Whirlwind was sitting on the beach just outside the Citadel, watching the sunset. Normally she loved the warm colors in the sky at the end of the day, but that day... that day, the sunset was unsettling to her.<p>

Trigger Happy bounded away from the docks where he had been fishing (with his hands). When he noticed that Whirlwind was there, looking depressed, he dashed over to her. "Hey, Whirlie," he said. "What's the matter?"

Whirl sighed. "It's just... Stealth Elf and Sunburn have been gone all day! They haven't come back yet... I can't help worrying about them."

"Whirlwind, missions can go on for a really long time," Trigg reminded her. "Wait, Sunburn? He he! I wonder how many times elf girl has punched him by now."

Whirl scowled at him. "Her name is 'Stealth Elf.' And haven't you noticed that a bunch of the other Skylanders have disappeared? If anything happens to Sunburn and Stealth Elf..."

Trigg clenched his teeth. "I... I'm sure they're fine." He was lying. "Don't worry about it! I'm sure they'll be back tomorrow afternoon. Just wait! You'll see!" For a moment, he was silent. He listened to the waves crashing against the shore., which normally couldn't be heard over the chaos that the Skylanders caused. "It really has gotten quiet around here."

He had no idea how right he was. It was so quiet that Kaos had started sending his minions to the Citadel to capture the Skylanders in their own home. There could have been one directly behind them and they wouldn't have even noticed.

In fact, there was.

* * *

><p>((Again, terribly sorry about the wait!))<p> 


End file.
